Pumpkin Cupcakes the right way.

Every fall the "2 ingredient pumpkin cupcake" recipe resurfaces in my Pinterest feed. It's a good recipe, frugal & simple. A dream come true to this kitchen-ly inept mama... or is it? Honestly, to make it *really* work you need to expand your ingredients to about 4 or 5. Pumpkin and yellow cake mix may seem like all you need, but without adding spice to it, that's all it tastes like... actually without the spice I think it tastes like band-aids, but I'm a weirdo.

So may I present to you the non-band-aid tasting "nom nom nom" version of the millennial classic -- the pumpkin cupcake.

First, gather up the crucial ingredients:

- (1) Box of yellow cake mix (16.5 oz)
- (1) 15 oz can of pumpkin

Here are my add on ingredients:

-1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg

- 1/2 tsp ginger

Theoretically you could substitute the cinnamon, nutmeg, & ginger for a big ol' spoonful of pumpkin pie spice. I wish I could, but as I said, I'm kitchen-ly inept, and didn't come prepared. I attempted this recipe for homemade pumpkin pie spice, but only had half the ingredients.

Second preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Using a mixer combine the cake mix and canned pumpkin. You will need a mixer for this, as the batter gets thick. Next fold in the brown sugar and spices.

Thirdly, spoon mixture into greased or lined cupcake tin. This recipe yields about 12 good sized cupcakes. You can also use a 9x13 pan if you'd rather have a cake, or you are also kitchen-ly inept and just realized that you don't own a muffin tin.

Forthly, decide whether you're going to ice these bad boys or not. If you aren't, sprinkle some granulated white sugar on top of the cupcakes before you stick 'em in the oven. It gives them that sugar-y crumbly that you find on the muffins they sell at coffee shops.

If you are going to ice them, might I recommend cream cheese frosting? Delish! Cool Whip will do in a pinch.

Fifthly, stick em in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until your house starts to smell like awesome and the stick of spaghetti you're using because you don't own toothpicks, (just me?) comes out clean when you insert it into the middle of the cupcake.

If you're not icing them. Congrats! You're done, pumpkin on sistah! (brothah?) If not, give em a good half hour to cool, unless you want a big old runny mess.